1. Field
The subject matter disclosed herein relates to electronic devices, and more particularly to methods, apparatuses and articles of manufacture for use by a mobile device to selectively transition operation from one communication mode to another communication mode.
2. Information
A variety of signal-based positioning techniques have been developed to allow for a location and/or a movement of a mobile device (e.g., such as a cell phone, a tracking device, etc.) to be estimated based on wireless signals that are transmitted by the mobile device and acquired by one or more external receivers, and/or wireless signals that are transmitted by one or more external transmitters and acquired by the mobile device.
For example, by measuring certain characteristics of one or more wireless signals that have been transmitted and acquired, it may be possible to determine a pseudorange or range between the transmitting and receiving antennas. For example, in certain implementations a propagation time may be determined which corresponds to an estimated range or pseudorange between a transmitter and receiver. Once a plurality of such ranges or pseudoranges to transmitting devices having known locations has been determined, then trilateration or other like known techniques may be implemented to determine an estimated location of the mobile device (e.g., location coordinates, etc.).
One example type of signal-based positioning technique that has been widely implemented to estimate a location of a mobile device is the global-based positioning system (GPS) which may be considered as supporting a satellite positioning system (SPS) capability. Here, for example, a SPS receiver may be provisioned within a mobile device to acquire SPS signals from a plurality of SPS transmitters having locations (e.g., positions in space) that may be known or determinable. Accordingly, mobile device with an SPS receiver may be capable of determining its estimated location (e.g., with regard to an earth centered, and/or other like coordinate system, etc.) based, at least in part, on a range or pseudorange between the SPS receiver and the applicable SPS transmitters.
Similar techniques may be implemented for various terrestrial transmitting devices, such as dedicated beacon transmitting devices, access devices that may be part of a cellular communications system or a wireless communication system (e.g., a wireless local area network, etc.), and/or the like or some combination thereof.
Indeed, in certain implementations, knowledge about an estimated location and/or movement of a mobile device may be beneficial to provide certain services to the mobile device. For example, such location/movement information may allow for a seamless handoff of a mobile device from one access device to another access device within a network/system, and/or possibly between different networks/systems. In another example, a mobile device may identify particular access devices that may be located near by and attempt to connect to one or more of the access devices. However, obtaining such location/movement information may consume limited time/computing resources, limited electrical power resources, etc.
Similarly, in certain situations, if a mobile device is unable to identify near by candidate access devices then the mobile device may consume limited time/computing resources, limited electrical power resources, etc., simply attempting to search for wireless signals transmitted by local candidate access devices to which the mobile device may attempt to establish a communication link. For example, a mobile device may consume such limited resources switching between different communication modes (e.g., which may be associated with different access devices, different communication technologies, etc.) in a search for wireless signals from one or more differently operated candidate access devices.